09 August 2012

Name a book you love in a genre you normally don’t care for. What made you decide to read it? Did it make you want to try more in that genre?

Harry Potter, and I ended up reading all seven books in the series. Broomsticks and cauldrons, wands and potions, what in the name of Merlin's beard are they?.... I recall my own snigger at these things; look up my book shelf where the books are lovingly piled, and think of telling the sister-in-law how she influenced me to read HP.

Because I'm sure she has no idea what she's done. She was holding a wineglass in one hand and HP2 in the other over a meal during one family get-together. The cover I saw was of Harry dangling from the flying car above the Yorkshire Moors. I wouldn't have been curious if she was a ninth grader, but she's a medical doctor. Okay, she's a globe trotter too so maybe it was a book she did not finish from some trans-atlantic flight, but what business would a decent dermatologist have with petrificus totalus or wingardium leviosa?

That got my nostrils on the magical pages of HP for long, delightful hours and almost tempted me to steal a chapter or two at work. Curiosity could have killed the cat.

Erotica and dark fantasy (some call it a sub-genre) - I don't last long in these genres. I get bored easily and then I go particular with money value.

Thursday Thirteen: I write like...

A haiku poet invited me to join his haiku meme. I went strolling around his site, and found a charmingly interesting widget that says he writes like Charles Dickens. There was a link so I hopped over there, and as I'm no writer, you could imagine what fun I got out of checking

"which famous writer I write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers."

Here we go ---

1. As I’m someone who still loves having traditional books around, I say that’s the spirit! ~ E-books v. printed books, and whether a Kindle loaded with a thousand books would weigh heavier than one with only a hundred books.

17 May 2012

Without much ado Harry Potter's Hogwarts! What a place to explore! I'd like to transfigure arrogant Malfoy into a cross-eyed cockroach. *kidding* And when I feel like cutting Snape's class I'll hang out at Hagrid's hut. Then during summers head to The Burrow. As Ron Weasley says, "it's not much, but it's home."

Thursday 13: My favorite places in Harry Potter

1. Hogwartsthe moving staircases and all the magic learning! 2. The Burrow 'dilapidated and standing only by magic' ah!... wonderful 3. Hogsmeade Village appeals to the country girl in me 3. Madam Puddifoot's is where we will have high tea 4. Diagon Alley shop til I drop 5. Shell Cottagea newly-weds' home must be sweet and lovely 6. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes I want their anti-acne cream 7. Honeyduke's Sweetshop for my sweet tooth 8. The Leaky Cauldron when one day in Diagon Alley is not enough 9. The Three Broomsticks running a pub and living above it 10. Scrivenshaft's Quill Supplies good old writing paraphernalia11. Magical Menagerie offers advice on animal care and health 12. Florean Fortescue's choco-raspberry with chopped nuts 13. Flourish & Blotts books of course

28 July 2011

Lumos Maxima! A bored muggle needed sufficient light to pore over the final Harry Potter book not once but twice, thrice or Voldy knows how many times. Yes, we can say the name now. These are lines I remember from The Deathly Hallows for reasons bubbling with toads and whiskers in my cauldron recently:

1. All's fair in love and war and this is a bit of both.- Ron Weasley

2. Mudblood and proud of it!- Hermione Granger

3. Of course it is happening in your head, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?- Albus Dumbledore to Harry

4. I think the answer is: a circle that has no beginning.- Luna Lovegood

5. We teachers are rather good in magic you know.- Minerva McGonagall

6. We did it, we bashed them, wee Potter's the one, And Voldy's gone moldy, so now let's have fun!- Peeves

7. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.- Albus Dumbledore

8. Not my daughter, you bitch.- Molly Weasley to Bellatrix Lestrange

9. Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. Above all, pity those who live without love.- Albus Dumbledore

11. (referring to Draco Malfoy's son) Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains.- Ron Weasley to his daughter Rosie

12. That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to understand. Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped.- Albus Dumbledore